Demographic and health factors associated with pandemic anxiety in the context of COVID-19.

Eoin Mcelroy,Mark Shevlin,Bettina Moltrecht,Cathy Creswell,Polly Waite,Praveetha Patalay,Adrienne Shum

doi:10.1111/bjhp.12470

Abstract

The mental health consequences of COVID-19 are predicted to have a disproportionate impact on certain groups. We aimed to develop a brief measure, the Pandemic Anxiety Scale, to capture the specific aspects of the pandemic that are provoking anxiety, and explore how these vary by health and demographic factors. Data were from a convenience sample of parents (N=4,793) and adolescents (N=698) recruited in the first 6weeks of lockdown. Factor analytic and IRT methods were used to validate the new measure in both parent and adolescent samples. Associations between scores on the new measure and age, gender, household income, and physical health status were explored using structural equation modelling (SEM). Two factors were identified in both samples: disease anxiety (e.g., catching, transmitting the virus) and consequence anxiety (e.g., impact on economic prospects); and unique associations with health and demographic factors were observed. Anxieties due to the COVID-19 are multifaceted, and the PAS is a short, reliable, and valid measure of these concerns. These anxieties are differentially associated with demographic, social, and health factors, which should be considered when developing strategies to mitigate the mental health impact of the pandemic.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic is arguably the largest public health crisis of the past century
Psychometric properties of the Pandemic Anxiety Scale (PAS) Inspection of the distributions of the preliminary items (Figure S1) revealed a strong ceiling effect for item 1 (‘I think that COVID-19 is a very serious issue’), and this was confirmed by problematic skewness and kurtosis values (Table S3); it was removed from the scale
The present study aimed to profile different forms of anxiety experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is arguably the largest public health crisis of the past century. In addition to the rising number of premature deaths and the burden placed on health services, COVID-19 poses a significant challenge for population-level mental health (Holmes et al, 2020). Evidence from previous pandemics (Wu et al, 2009) suggests a pronounced negative impact on public mental health, and nationally representative panel studies in the United Kingdom have reported increase in mental health problems in the first 2 months of lockdown (Banks & Xu, 2020; Shevlin et al, 2020). The mental health consequences of a global pandemic are likely attributable to more than just illness and bereavement from the disease itself (Holmes et al, 2020). The economic repercussions of the pandemic are projected to be vast (McKibbin & Fernando, 2020)

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